Culvert failure slows traffic between Trenton, Mount Desert Island

TRENTON, Maine — Traffic on Route 3 between Trenton and Mount Desert Island was snarled Saturday as a construction crew made repairs after a culvert near the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton failed at about 9 a.m. during morning rains.

At 11 a.m., traffic in both directions was backed up more than a mile, with Hancock County Sheriff’s Department deputies handling traffic control north of the causeway and Bar Harbor Police officers handling traffic on the Mount Desert Island side of the snarl. By 2 p.m. both agencies reported that traffic was “calming” and that the situation was slowly improving.

Route 3 provides the only vehicular access to and from Mount Desert Island.